Epidemiological Behavior of Mobile Phone Dependence: a Criminological Perspective

Introduction: Prevalence of Mobile phone dependence (nomophobia) in increasing all over the world, but its prevalence and related factors in Latin America are unknown so far. Recently, the role of nomophobia in aggression, antisocial personality and emotional disturbances in adolescents has been recognized. Material and Methods: We included university students from Veracruz, Mexico. The Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale (MPPUS) was applied: It is a Likert scale of 27 items. We used the 15th, 80th and 95th percentiles to establish four categories: occasional, habitual, at risk and problematic users. The values obtained were compared with several sociodemographic variables. Statistical analysis was made by means of the Mann-Whitney U-test and one-way ANOVA. Results: We included 541 students aged 18-25 years (median 20.5 years); the number of years using a mobile phone was greater than 5 in 73% (n = 395). The number of hours of use per day was at least 3 in 75.2% (n = 407). 16.5% can be considered as users at risk, and 4.1% as problematic users. We found a statistically significant association between the MPPUS value and the number of hours of use per day, as well as the number of years using a mobile phone (p <0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of mobile phone dependence is similar to that reported in other developing countries; the number of hours of use per day and the number of years using a cellphone could be considered as predictive factors in our population.

• Autores: Denis Rodríguez, Edmundo; Villegas Domínguez, Josué Elí; Denis Rodríguez, Patricia Beatriz; Melo Santiesteban, Guadalupe; Barradas Alarcón, María Esther
• Tipo de recurso: Article of journal
• Fecha de publicación: 2018
• Institución: Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UCC
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.ucc.edu.co:20.500.12494/44360
• Acceso en línea: https://revistas.ucc.edu.co/index.php/ml/article/view/2362; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12494/44360
• Palabra clave: cellphone; criminology; nomophobia; university students; celular; criminología; nomofobia; estudiantes universitarios; telefone celular; criminologia; nomofobia; estudantes universitários
• Rights: openAccess
• License: Derechos de autor 2018 Colombia Forense